berlusconi has announced he's creating a new center right grouping. meanwhile, mario monti has been accused oversimplifying solutions during the fiscal crisis. carolin is joining us now from rome. do we expect more of this rhetoric today? >> oh, definitely. not just today, but specifically over two months. elections will only be held probably on february 24th. we've got about two months of the silly campaigning season to follow. so yes, as you said, the verbal exchange is definitely heating up. it started with mr. monti's response criticism coming from officials about his renewed request for the prime minister post yesterday. he said this criticism was out of place. it was offensive not just for him, but also for all of the people in italy who have the freedom to vote. this morning, he did an interview with one of the channels here in italy and he said, i don't really care about this spread because the spread is based on fraud. that's the direct translation. meanwhile, if you take a look at the spread, they are moving higher again. 4.9%. italian equit